Processes for pushing the coke from a coke-oven chamber are well-known. Normally the coal is loaded into the coke-oven chamber, which can be heated from at least two sides, so that the coal is heated and the volatile coking gases degas so that the coal is converted into coke zone by zone from the walls of the coke-oven chamber so that the oven chamber yields a coke cake, which, after degassing of the volatile matter contained in the coal, is pushed into a quenching car by means of a pusher ram which travels through the coke-oven chamber.
In normal operation, a quenching car is used to take the glowing coke under a quench tower where it is typically quenched with water. In the meantime, the emptied coke oven is promptly re-loaded with new coal. The quenched coke can be discharged from a quenching car onto a coke wharf where it steams off before a conveyor belt takes it to a coke screening unit.
DE 2320057 B1 describes a process and an apparatus for the quenching of a heated material to be quenched, this material to be quenched in particular being coke, which is quenched by means of a liquid flowing through the bulk material from top to bottom; here, the bulk material height over a basically horizontal support surface covered by the bulk material is kept constant on certain conditions for steaming off, and the amount of quenching liquid evenly distributed across the bulk material is determined in a manner known per se such that it evaporates except for the part absorbed by the bulk material. The description of the process includes the discharge of the quenched coke onto a wharf.
During operation, however, disturbances of the quenching system or of the receiving devices following the quenching system may occur. In such case, the intake capacity of the quenching system will not be large enough to quench all the coke that is produced during the operation of a coke-oven battery. The excessive coke will then either burn or must be left in a coke-oven chamber for an inadequately long period. This is, however, not wanted for economical reasons. It may also happen that the quenching system stops functioning properly during operation so that the coke discharged from the coke-oven chambers cannot be quenched anymore or that full intake capacity of the receiving device assigned to the quench tower has been reached.
For this reason it would be of decisive advantage to have a process for the coke discharged from a coke-oven chamber by which it is transferred into a suitable receiving device, where the coke is quenched in the before-mentioned operational phases. This receiving device may theoretically be of any type desired, must, however, be suited for the discharge of coke which is possibly still burning or glowing. This device should also be provided with an auxiliary device to implement temporary coke quenching. It would be of further advantage if no additional equipment was required for the process so that the process was basically carried out with coke-oven batteries adequately known according to the state of the art.